The April 11th meeting was a “Special Meeting” — which allows, by law, a reduction in how public input is taken.

 

The total of public input could be limited to a single time, rather than have public input for each Business Item, as in a “Regular Meeting.” 

At the April 11, 2023, Planning Commission meeting, Commissioner Judith Mayer asked the question:
“Point of Order. I’m wondering why this is listed as a Special Meeting. This is the regularly scheduled second Tuesday of the month.”

David Loya replied:
“That’s because the Commission decided to take 5:30 meetings instead of 6:00. So your regular scheduled meetings are at 6:00. And so even though they’re on the same day, they’re at a different time. So they’ll be Special Meetings from here.“

Why did the Planning Commission decide to change the starting times of the meetings?
Did they actually decide to create “Special Meetings” ?

Keep reading. You can determine this for yourself.

Very simply: Were the members of the Planning Commission informed that they were creating special meetings? Was there a discussion, a motion, and a vote for creating special meetings?

And simple answers: No, no, no, and no. The Planning Commission was not informed that they were creating special meetings. The motion did not say that, and that’s not what they did.

And further: Was the definition and implications of what a “Special Meeting” is ever explained to the Planning Commission? The video and the transcription tell the answer on that question also:  No. For more information on the definition, implications, and acceptable uses of a Special Meeting, see this article here.

A history of the starting times of the Planning Commission meetings

The Arcata Planning Commission has two “Regular Meetings” per month, on the 2nd and 4th Tuesdays of the month. 

Going back to February, 2015, the Regular Meetings have started at 6:00 PM. Prior to February, 2015, Regular Meetings were held at 7:00 PM.

A “Special Meeting” is held on occasion. The scheduled Tuesday, March 28, 2023, meeting coincided with a joint Study Session with the City Council, as a presentation on Sea Level Rise. As a result, the Planning Commission met as a “Special Meeting” on Monday, March 27, the day before, at 5:30 PM.

From time to time, Regular Meetings have been held at a time other than the regularly scheduled time.

The November 8, 2011, Regular Meeting started at Noon. The January 9, 2009, Regular Meeting was held at 11:00 AM. The September 22, 2009, Regular Meeting was held at 8:00 PM. The October 10, 2006 Regular Meeting was held at 8:30 PM. The May 23, June 13, June 27, August 8, August 22, September 12, September 26, October 17, October 24, and December 12 Regular Meetings in 2006 — more than half of the meetings from that period — and the January 27 Regular Meeting in 2007 were all held at 6:30 PM. 

For the change in meeting time from 6:00 PM to 5:30, what is on the agenda? What is in the staff report? 

On the March 14, 2023, agenda for the Planning Commission, the first Business Item on the agenda has this as its title:

Consider Administrative Actions Including Electing Chair, Vice-chair,
and Considering Special Meeting Times.

The title is not clear:

• Are we considering meetings that going to be held at special times?
• Or are we considering the times of special meetings?

In either case, by saying “Considering Special Meeting Times” then what we are considering here is the times of meetings.
(By the way, showing the agenda items in capitalized words like that is typical.)

In ordinary English-language usage understanding, we are not considering the establishment of special meetings.  If so, it would be worded like that.

If that were the case, it would have to be spelled out. In that case, then the sentence would be written along the lines of:

Consider Administrative Actions Including Electing Chair, Vice-chair, and
Consider the Establishment of Special Meetings.

But that is not what the agenda title says. Further, under the description of the agenda item, directly below the title, is this:

Chair Julie Vaissade-Elcock, whose service we honor and appreciate, resigned from the Commission effective March 3, 2023. The Commission annually appoints the Chair and Vice-Chair in July. The Commission should appoint positions to either serve for the remainder of this term.

Vice-Chair Davies requested the Commission consider starting its meetings earlier on the regular second and fourth Tuesdays to provide additional time for Commission deliberations on the Strategic Infill Redevelopment Program documents. In recognition of the time needed for the conversation and to keep meetings from running too late, the Commission should consider starting earlier in the evening or late afternoon.

Clearly the purpose of this agenda item is for “the Commission to consider starting its meetings earlier on the regular second and fourth Tuesdays to provide additional time.”

The Community Development Director spoke clearly on what this topic was about

At 38:42 in the video of this meeting is the verbal staff report from David Loya on this subject:

David Loya – Community Development Director:
The other matter that’s on this agenda topic is to consider moving the Planning Commission meetings up a little bit, starting them at 5:00, for instance, so that there’s more time earlier in the day for Planning Commission deliberations, so we don’t have such late meetings. I’d be happy to help with any process questions that you have. But, you know, the chair / vice-chair is typically appointed through a motion, second, and a vote. Likewise the action to adjust the times temporarily would be a motion, a second, and a vote. And I will point out that we should take public comment on this item. We failed to do so on the last.

Specifically:
“The other matter that’s on this agenda topic is to consider moving the Planning Commission meetings up a little bit.”
“Likewise the action to adjust the times temporarily would be a motion, a second, and a vote.”
There is not one word in David Loya’s verbal presentation on anything about a vote on establishing Special Meetings. Not one word.

The portions of the meeting agenda and the staff report pertaining to this item are below.

Here is a 6-minute section of the video of the March 14, 2023, Planning Commission meeting in which this is discussed. Following the video is a transcription of what was said.

We can note the following:

• The discussion starts with Chair Scott Davies saying “I’d also like to take up the matter of starting the meetings earlier.”
• Chair Davies does say “And these would be special meetings that would last through our June-July report to the City Council.”
• Community Development Director David Loya makes no mention verbally during this 6-minute discussion of this being a consideration for a special meeting. What a special meeting is, and what the guidelines of a special meeting are and what is involved and implied by holding special meetings, is not discussed.
• David Loya says: “So if you did want to amend the timeframes….” — referring to the timelines for the meetings. Regarding Commissioner Peter Lehman: “he was in favor of moving the meetings earlier in the day.”
• The motion is: “I’ll make a motion for 5:30.”
  It is not: “I’ll make a motion to establish special meetings that are held at 5:30.”

Scott Davies (Chair)  47:12
I’d also like to take up the matter of starting the meetings earlier. And before we do, I just want to say that my perspective on this is that when our meetings get late, they get less productive. When any of us get tired, we’re less productive. We have a lot to do. The City Council has given us a crisp timeline that we should try to adhere to. And my sense is if we could start at five o’clock, I do understand the impact on Commissioners and the public. But I think it would allow us to have a longer meeting and still perhaps stay within that productive zone. But I’m interested to hear what other Commissioners have to say.

Dan Tangney (Commissioner)  47:58
Is this an item that we’re going to try to resolve right now? I’m fine with that.

Scott Davies (Chair)  48:03
Yes, we’re looking for a motion. And these would be special meetings that would last through our June-July report to the City Council.

Matt Simmons (Commissioner) 48:16
I have a chill boss that would let me off and get here at five, but I understand that members of the public might not. And so I would just suggest like 5:10 or 5:15 as a starting point, really just to post-work commute sort of thing.

Judith Mayer (Commissioner)  48:33
For the first several years that I was on the Planning Commission we started at 7:00. That gave me time to actually eat some food after I got out of work at 5:00, which allowed me to be fairly productive into that later meeting. I do not think we should move the meetings to anytime before 6:00. People who have “job-jobs” will have trouble getting here at that time, possibly including myself. And I think that your practice of cutting meetings off before 9:00 can probably serve the meeting productivity issue pretty well. And so I suggest that we keep the meeting times as they are. Perhaps prescribing that if the meeting goes over two hours, we have a break sometime in the middle. 

Dan Tangney (Commissioner)  49:35
I’m fine with 5:00, but I super-respect the people that can get here on time, including the public. So I think it’s very legitimate concern. I’m fine with going later too. And although I do struggle with that we do feel less productive the later it gets.

Scott Davies (Chair)  49:55
And do you feel that 5:30 would be too burdensome?

Judith Mayer (Commissioner)  50:00
I feel that 6:00 is a great time. And I’d like to keep it there.

Matt Simmons (Commissioner) 50:06
I will say that I do think somewhat earlier would be better because we, I mean, the Commission often gets to about 8:30 or 9:00, and then it feels like we’re not able to make decisions that late. And then, hopefully, with an earlier meeting, we could, you know, eat dinner at like 7:30 or 8:00, but it’s like, I don’t know. I hear what you’re saying, I understand.

Scott Davies (Chair)  50:36
Does anyone have a motion they want to make regarding this matter?

Judith Mayer (Commissioner)  50:39
I move that we keep the meetings as they are until further notice, including the presence of our additional Commission members, at least two of whom are not here and one of whom we don’t know about.

Scott Davies (Chair)  50:54
Is there a second for that motion?

Dan Tangney (Commissioner)  51:02
Respecting Judith’s position, I like the idea of waiting for other Commissioners to weigh on it. I’d like to hear from them.

David Loya – Community Development Director  51:13
I do actually have some feedback on that, if you’re interested in knowing. Because I did reach out to — knowing that Christian and Peter weren’t going to be here.  And anticipating that this action might be taken, I reached out to them beforehand. I think Peter addresses in his letter here. Maybe he doesn’t address it specifically, actually. [Note:  This is not addressed at all in Peter Lehman’s letter.] But he did tell me in person that he was in favor of moving the meetings earlier in the day. In fact, he’d like that to be a permanent change. And Christian said that he could do five at the very earliest. I’m also getting information from our IT that 5:30 would be the earliest that we could start with IT. So if you did want to amend the timeframes, you know, 5:30 might be, you know, appropriate for now.

Scott Davies (Chair)  52:07
And as early as we can reasonably get.

Dan Tangney (Commissioner)  52:14
So Christian is on board with 5:30.

David Loya – Community Development Director  52:18
Yeah, he said he could get here at 5:00 if need be. But no earlier.

Scott Davies (Chair)  52:26
Still looking for a motion.

Judith Mayer (Commissioner)  52:30
We actually had a motion on the table. I think before we have another motion, we should either amend it or vote on it. It sounds  like it will probably be voted down. But as a matter of process, I think we have to do that actually, or entertain another motion.

Scott Davies (Chair)  52:45
We don’t have a second. Would anyone like to second that motion? Motion fails. Would anyone else like to make a different motion?

Matt Simmons  52:59
I’ll make a motion for 5:30.

Scott Davies (Chair)  53:02
Is there a second?

Dan Tangney (Commissioner)  53:03
Yeah, I’ll second 5:30.

Scott Davies (Chair)  53:05
All in favor?

53:06
Dan Tangney: Aye. Matt Simmons: Aye. Scott Davies: Aye

Scott Davies (Chair)  53:09
Opposed?

Judith Mayer (Commissioner)  53:11
No.

Scott Davies (Chair)  53:13
Motion passes.

From Page 3 of the agenda packet.
Red highlights added and “3/14/2023…” moved to fit in the image.

From Page 12 of the agenda packet.
Red highlights added and “March 14, 2023” moved to fit in the image, and one line enlarged.

The original pages in PDF format, as Page 3 and Page 12 of the agenda packet.
You can use the + and – buttons to enlarge and reduce the view.